A Dangerous Game
by Incredible Heights
Summary: As Allan arrives in Nottingham, he's not alone. Set during 1x01. I'm stopping this after a few chapters because I only want to introduce my OC... then she'll be in the rest of my fics. Chapter 5 soon.
1. Of Brothers and Bracelets

A Dangerous Game Chapter 1

Allan stood in the cell waiting to be hanged. To his suprise he found he wasn't scared, just strangely numb. Across from him, there was a young lad, no older than sixteen. "_Shame" _he thought "_whole life ahead of him, that lad." _At the side of him, an older boy of about eighteen. He wondered to himself what they'd done to get thrown in there. They didn't look like crooks, but then again, neither did he. As he sat down on the floor, there was one person he couldn't get out of his mind. Was she was ok? What was she doing? Was she coming to help him?

He remembered back to the day he met her, well rescued her.

_He was sixteen years old; he'd gone with his brothers to the coast. His father had just died, went out to the tavern one night and never came back. His mother couldn't cope on her own, it should have been better with him gone, but it wasn't She couldn't cope being alone with three teenage boys, so, she killed herself one night when the boys were sleeping. So, Allan and his two brothers, had fled. Ben, who was four years older, was tall and butch and very arrogant. He cared for his two brothers but had an awful temper and would beat them if they over stepped the mark. Tom, who was thirteen at the time, was scrawny and short. Ben would order him to go and rob everyone as he was small and innocent looking. Allan on the other hand, well, there was not a lot Allan could do, so he took up scamming drunks in taverns. He figured if he went in at night, people would be so plastered they'd do anything._

_One night he lay awake, thinking of ways to get out of this way of life when heard a loud scream. The noise cut short these thoughts and so he forced himself out of bed, pulled on his shirt and poked his head out of the alley way where they had been sleeping. In the distance he could see two figures in the moonlight, a tall, bearded man and a small woman. Then, in a moment of horror he realized why she had screamed. He could see, if he looked very carefully, that she was bleeding heavily, the full length of her forearm. The bearded man raised the sword to the girl again and there was nothing she could do, she had no weapons. "Oi!" They both froze and turned to look down the street towards. It suddenly dawned on Allan the voice was his own. The man spun around and pointed his sword towards the entrance to the alley. "You there, boy!" he spoke with a strange accent that Allan could barely understand. He suddenly felt his legs moving beneath him against his will. He was by then standing in the middle of the street, no protection and no weapons. The man started to walk towards Allan, the girl tried to grab his shoulder but he spun around and punched her over the head, knocking her out._

_The man ran at Allan and swung his sword at the boys head, without thinking Allan grabbed the mans arm held it in the air . His limbs were working of their own accord again, he realized. He planted his knee sharply into the mans stomach before punching him in the head, leaving him out cold on the floor._

_Allan then realized with a start that the girl was still on the floor. He sprinted down the street and sunk to his knees next to the girl. "You alright?" he asked. She didn't reply, this had panicked him slightly, but not as much as the sound of a metal sword scraping along the floor. Allan was about to stand up, when a large figure appeared from the alleyway and knocked the old man flying into the wall opposite. "Allan?!" came a familiar voice. "You alright mate?"  
"Yeah, but she's not!" A look of confusion came over Ben's face, but he hadn't questioned his younger brother, just ran to his aid. He picked up the girl and carried her into the alleyway, Allan could have done it himself, as she was only small, but he thought best to let his bigger brother do that. Ben put her down next to where Allan had been sleeping. Allan sat down and tied a rag around the girls arm. He could see in this light that she was, in fact, very pretty. He could see her pale skin and long black hair. The thing he found strangest about the girl was that she wasn't wearing a dress like women did. No, she was wearing what seemed to be leather leggings beneath a white cotton shirt. Around her stomach there was a purple corset with black detailing up the front. On her left arm she wore a number of gold bracelets, he slid them over her dainty hands and hid them under his cloak. He had had every intention of giving the back, he just thought he'd better hide them from Tom. Allan then noticed something under the slash on her arm. A tattoo. He couldn't work out what it was, it was just markings. He realized then, there was nothing more he could for the girl and so he put his cloak around her and went to sleep with the bracelets in his hand._

_The next morning he woke to find the girl sitting up with her back against the wall. "'Mornin'" she spoke. He was amused to find out she had a Yorkshire accent.  
"'Mornin'" he replied. "You, erm.. you alright?"  
"Yeah, fine." She said quietly "Thanks, by the way for.. y'know, last night."  
"No problem" he grinned "I could hardly leave you there, could I?" Allan got up and walked over to her, she was a few inches shorter than him, but looked about the same age. "So," he started, he'd never had trouble talking to girls before, but she wasn't an ordinary girl. "What's your name, then?" The girl turned and looked at him amused, she could see how awkward he was feeling about the whole thing. "Kat." She replied, "and you are...?" Allan realized he had not yet told her his name. He opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut after a moment. She was obviously caught up in a dangerous game, one much more dangerous than his own. Did he really want her to know his name? "Well?" her voice broke his train of thoughts  
"Allan" he finally said, "Allan a Dale." The girl smirked as she saw the obvious look of despair that crossed his face when he realized his body seemed to be working by itself once more.  
"It's okay, I'm not gonna kill you." She laughed. "So, Allan a Dale, what're doin' sleeping down 'ere?" She looked at him and knew she shouldn't have said it. "Sorry, I shouldn't stick me nose in where it's not wanted." _

_She looked at her bare wrist and then back to Allan. "I think you've got something of mine." She said as she raised an eyebrow to him. He sighed and handed the gold bracelets to her.  
"I was gonna give them back." He protested, but she still wasn't convinced. "I 'ad to 'ide them from my brother, 'e nicks anythin' 'e can get 'is 'ands on see." She had said nothing, just smiled at him._

_That was when Ben and Tom appeared from around the corner. "Ah, look who it is." His older brother had said in a way that slightly unnerved Kat. "Didn't think you were gonna wake up, I'm Ben by the way." He held out his hand to her and she hesitantly shook it. "Kat." She said nervously. He looked over to Allan who was sitting down over where he had slept that night. "Oh, 'ave a look, lad." He glanced at Tom then back to Allan. "Sleeping Beauty's awake."_

_Ben looked Kat up and down. "Well, I take it your not from round here, Kat." He enquired, taking her clothes and her accent into account. " No, I'm from Rotherham originally, but I moved from there to Locksley when I was young." They were all taken aback slightly that she had so easily parted with such personal information. "Well, then 'ow come you're in London?" Young Tom spoke up for the first time since she had arrived. Kat opened her mouth to speak but was beaten to it by Ben. "I think you'll find I can answer that." He said matter of factly as he glared menacingly at the young girl. "That man last night was a pirate was 'e not?" Kat had said nothing, just shifted uncomfortably."So, I asked the landlord in the tavern and 'e said that every few months a boat comes into the docks and the crew usually go in the tavern. And you, are one of them."_

_The alley fell into silence. They were stunned at Ben's knowledge of the girl. Suddenly she lifted her head and looked the older lad straight in the eyes. "Fine." She said in the manner of an angry toddler, "I admit it, but that's why I was arguing with that man last night. 'E was the captain. I told 'im I didn't want to be part of it anymore, robbing and slaughtering good, innocent men." Allan stood up and walked over to where the three of them were standing.  
"Well, lads, do you think we could manage a girl in the gang?"_

Allan suddenly snapped out of his little flashback, when the Jailer opened the door and threw in another man. He landed on his face at Allan's feet. "Alright, mate?" he asked, attempting to be polite. The man said nothing just dragged himself across the floor and sat against the wall. He tried not to think about her. He knew he was going to die, if he thought about her it would only upset him more. He crossed his hands across his knees and rested his forehead on them. And waited for the Jailer to come and lead him to the noose.


	2. Of Troubled Pasts

A Dangerous Game Chapter 2

An hour had passed and no one had come to take the men to the gallows. Allan finally looked up to see the two young men staring curiously at him. He thought if he didn't ask why they were here, it'd soon be too late to find out. "Alright," He began sheepishly "What're you two in for?"  
"Stealing flour." Murmured the taller lad as he sat down across from Allan. His younger brother soon joined him.  
"You're from Locksley then?" enquired Allan. He though he may as well make conversation, they had no idea how long they were going to be in there.  
"Yeah, we are."  
"_Great"_ Allan thought to himself "_I'm gonna be trapped in here for God only knows how long with two that don't talk and one that never speaks more than three words at a time!"_

They sat in silence for a while before Allan felt compelled to ask "You don't, by any chance, know someone called Kat, do you?" he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, he knew they probably didn't. Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to remember her. "Kat.." the younger brother started to say to himself "Kat..." both boys suddenly spun around and shot each other alarmed looks. "No, it can't be, can it?" the older boy looked Allan square in the face.  
"Who wants to know?" asked the bigger boy suspiciously.  
"Just an old friend." Allan declared shrugging and relaxing against the wall.  
"We do, actually." Allan's face lit up. "She disappeared about four years ago, no one ever spoke of her since."

No matter how hard he tried he couldn't quite get Kat out of his head. He couldn't think about her, not now, now that he was about to die. Because he couldn't think of the happy memories of her, all he could think about was what was going to happen to her when he'd gone. She would be alone in the world. He leaned his head back against the wall and tried to cast his mind back to happier times.

_Six months after Kat joined the gang, they started to work their way up north. They started getting more daring with their scams. They went street to street, town to town and eventually made it to Coventry. There were more people in the gang now, so it was easier for them to pull off scams, although it took a lot more organizing. He and Kat had grown closer in the past months and although she did not know it, Allan had a massive crush on her and had done since the day he saved her. Ben would tease him about this and so would Rob. He was a more recent addition to the gang, but he had made friends with them all very quickly. Jack on the other hand had not. He was very quiet and tended to stay at the back when the rest of the gang were scheming. _

He remembered the day that was both the scariest and one of the best days of his life. They had all had a lot of ale that night, but Allan could still remember most of it clearly:

_It was early evening and the young criminals had managed to acquire enough money to spend the night in an inn. They just could afford three rooms between the six of them. Kat had a room on her own, her being the only girl in the gang. Allan, Tom and Jack were in the room across from her. And in the room next to her, Ben and Rob. They went down to the bar that night to celebrate their wealth. _

_Ben and Rob were standing at the bar with two women. Jack and Tom were sitting in the corner talking quietly. Allan just sat there, contemplating what would happen when they grew up and wanted to do something different. How would they get out of a life of crime? "Don't worry." He turned to see Kat sitting next to him. "It'll be fine." She reassured him, leaning her head on his shoulder and staring into his blue eyes.  
"'ow did you know what I was thinking?" He asked, leaning his head gently on top of hers. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer.  
"I could tell. Don't worry, love. It's gonna be fine." She ran her hand up his neck onto the side of his face, pulled him closer and kissed him.  
_He couldn't remember a lot after that, though he knew exactly what had happened.

His thoughts were once again interrupted, this time by the young lad across from him. "How do you know Kat?" he asked.  
"Well, I may as well tell you." He took a deep breathe, not sure why two complete strangers would be interested. "She's my fiancée." The two lads looked at each other, bewildered.  
"What's your name?" the darker haired lad asked.  
"Allan. You?"  
"I'm Will. And this is my little brother Lukey." He declared, pointing at his younger sibling.  
"I am _not_ little!" protested Lukey, causing both men to stifle a laugh.  
"So how do you know her?"Allan enquired, clearly glad of some intelligent conversation at last.  
"You really want to know?" Allan nodded it would pass the time even if it was the complete opposite of what he wanted to do.

Will leaned back on the wall behind him. "She moved to Locksley when she was about five years old, I remember her really well because we used to play together in the summer. We were the same age and there weren't many kids in Locksley. There was Robin and Much, but they were a few years older than us. We were like brother and sister, then one day when she was about twelve. Her mother was burned at the stake for witchcraft, by Robin's orders. No one knew who her father was, so she fled and that was the last we ever heard of her."

They sat in the cell in silence for a few moments, before Allan spoke up. "I know what 'appened to 'er." The two boys looked interested and he wondered to himself whether or not he should have said that. "She ran away to find 'er father. She somehow ended up in a tavern near Grimsby, a bloke in there told her 'e was a pirate and that if she went down the docks, and looked for a boat with a figurehead of some sort of black mermaid, or something like that. Anyway, when she found it they told her that 'er dad 'ad been killed a few years ago. They told 'er something about carrying on the family name and she ended up staying. After a few years she'd 'ad enough and when she told the captain. 'E sliced 'er arm open to try an' get rid of the tattoo they'd given 'er. That's when I found 'er."

They didn't have time to let it sink in, because as soon as Allan shut up, the cell door burst open to reveal a rather wild looking Jailer. "Come on scum!" he ordered. As the men trudged out of the cell the were shoved by the jailer before being restrained by guards. None of the men saw the point of this, even if they tried to escape, they weren't going to get anywhere.

As the guards shoved the huge, wooden doors back the three men stared up at the gallows in terror. No one was going to help them now...


	3. Of Nooses and Speeches

A Dangerous Game Chapter 3

Kat wandered towards Nottingham castle. Hoping and praying that Allan was alive and she wasn't too late. She crept sheepishly into the courtyard with her black cloak wrapped around her and her hood almost covering her face. She didn't dare show her face anywhere near Locksley. Not after that day. Her bright turquoise eyes were drawn towards the steps, where she saw three figures standing out in front of everyone else. One was old, quite short and bald. She figured he must be the new Sheriff. The man one the left looked strangely familiar, although she couldn't work out why. It was the man in the middle she immediately recognized. Her heart sank , it was Robin. Robin of Locksley. "_That bastard!"_ She thought "_He could have stopped them. He let them kill my mother!" _Through one of the arches she saw someone she hadn't seen in a very long time. Marian. She smiled for a moment when she saw her old friend, the first time she had smiled since arriving in Nottingham.

Robin started to read from the scroll infront of him. She wasn't really listening, she was too concerned about finding a way to rescue Allan. She looked up to the gallows, at her fiancée's body. She couldn't see his face, they had already put the bag over his head. She slyly moved through the crowd to the platform, and touched Allan's foot. He knew it was her, he didn't know how, but he just felt it. At that moment she became very aware of what Robin had said. "_Will and Luke Scarlett of Locksley."_ She looked at the other two pairs of legs on the platform. She felt a pang of guilt, she knew she couldn't possibly leave them to die.

"Stop!" A number of gasps rippled through the crowd and confused faces spun around aghast, to gawp disbelievingly at a bearded man wearing a dark cloak. She thought by the way he was talking about pleading the cloth that he had to be a priest of some kind. The petite woman giggled inwardly at the thought of Allan being a holy man. She thought there was more chance of men flying. The Sherriff soon rumbled him and as he tried desperately to escape the man was caught by two guards and hauled back through the gates. _"Jeffrey!" _Kat remembered him startlingly well, he used make all the children on the estate laugh by doing little magic tricks, her favourite trick was when he would pull an egg from his ear. It took her three years when she was small to figure out that he never really swallowed it.

In an instant Kat was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard screams and realized the bodies she had been gazing at were now suspended a foot from the floor. She was quickly overcome with panic. "_What I wouldn't give for Ben and his scheming about now." _Before she could make a move, there were stunned cries from all around her. They were all staring at the huge doors where the three men had been standing. "_If only I weren't so bloody short!" _ The unfortunately small lady tried to move to see what was happening when she heard "People of Nottingham, these men have done nothing worth more than a spell in the stocks!" Kat peered around the corner, only to see something that took her completely by surprise. She missed the rest of the speech over the sound of cheers and a clattering sound at the side of her. It was Allan.

She ran to towards him and yanked the bag off his head. "'Ello." He grinned cheekily, she wasn't sure would ever see that grin again. She jumped up and kissed him, then grabbed his hand and dragged him into the crowd. Two guards ran at them, but neither of them were fazed. It was nothing they hadn't done before. "Master!" a cry came from the roof. "_That must be Much, he really has changed." _ She ducked as Allan swung his sword over her head and knocked the guard onto the floor. Robin and Much shot past on horse back followed by Will. "Go," she said slightly out of breathe "They're not after me." Will grabbed Allan's arm and pulled him onto the horse. They shot over the drawbridge and into the forest.


	4. Of Old Friends

A Dangerous Game Chapter 4

_Confused. Annoyed. Scared. _

The only words she could think of to describe how she felt. She hoped Allan would be okay, because there was nothing she could do for him at the moment. She needed to find someone who could, but someone who wouldn't recognise her.

She pulled her cloak closer around her, as it had started to get cold. And dark. She needed to find somewhere to stay and fast. Kat knew she wouldn't have time to find the lads in the forest, and even if she, by some miracle, managed to, she had no idea how she would keep herself from savagely butchering Robin.

"Oi!" Kat spun around to see a pair of guards making their way down the street towards her. Without thinking, she shot of in any direction. She could hear the sound of chainmail clanking behind her. It wasn't long before Kat saw something she recognised. "Knighton Hall." She weezed. She quickly shot off into the woods and dived down into the undergrowth. She laughed to herself as they stood in the clearing outside the house for a minute looking confused. They're not the brightest bunch.

Creeping through the leaves, she wondered if Marian could help her. If she _would_ help her. She pulled her hood down even lower, so that she could barely see. _"If I run," _she thought to herself _"I might draw attention to myself."_ So she kept on shuffling slowly towards the house, hoping she didn't look too suspicious.

Kat didn't know what she would say to Marian. She really didn't know what she would do if Marian turned her away. Ben had always been the man with the plan. Allan was the mouth on legs. And Tom was just, well, Tom.

She reached out her hand and knocked on the door. No answer. She knocked again. This time an old hand opened the door. _Edward_. "Hello?" he asked, his voice much more shaky than she remembered, she thought he sounded quite frail. "Hel-" he stopped when it dawned on him. The bright turquoise eyes, the small, almost skinny figure. "Katrina?" he asked, peering under her hood. She lifted her head. "Hello." She had tried to sound calm and she was sure she had failed in her efforts, but their attentions where both turned to the sound of the footsteps on the stairs.

"Father, I-" Marian didn't even close her mouth when she stopped mid sentence. "Kat?!" she walked quickly towards the door. "Come inside." She calmly told the younger girl. Marian led Kat into the house. "So," Marian started, "why are you here?" "I.. I was going to ask if you could help me." "Why, what have you done now?" The taller girls words were stern, but they were true. Even when they were children, Kat would always be the one in trouble. "I was wondering if you could help me find Robin..." "Then, I am sorry." Kat felt her heart sink. "I cannot help you." "But, weren't you supposed to marry him?" Kat was getting desperate now, nearly to the point where it was becoming impossible to hide it. "I was." Marian's comment was followed by an uncomfortable silence. Kat decided enough was enough and got to her feet. "Well, if you can't help me. I'd better find someone that can." No attempt was made by her to hide the bitterness in her voice. "Please." She heard her friend say quickly. "Stay. We have a lot to discuss."

A serf came and took Kat's cloak. She gave him a courteous nod, she was in no mood for formal pleasantries. They sat down by the fire and Marian took notice of her friends clothes. They weren't dirty or scruffy. She just found them an odd choice of clothes for a young lady like herself. "So, why do you need Robin? I'm surprised you do not hate him." "I do." Kat replied, her tiny hands clenched into fists. "It's not him I'm looking for, it's..." She realised that Marian didn't need to know "my friend."

Marian didn't ask anything about Kat's 'friend' she just tucked a stray lock of brown hair behind her ear and sighed. "You may stay here for the night. Tomorrow, I will do what I can to help you, but I fear it will not be much."

The shorter girl looked up at her taller friend with sparkling eyes. "Thank you."


End file.
